Wide receiver position used to be crowded

Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg is adjusting after various injuries and trades.

October 24, 2009|By Nick Fierro OF THE MORNING CALL

Less than two months after coming out of training camp with a glut of wide receivers, the Eagles now are so short at the position that they were forced to tweak their practice squad this week.

The departure of rookie Brandon Gibson in a trade with St. Louis for linebacker Will Witherspoon and the indefinite unavailability of Kevin Curtis because of a knee injury left the Eagles with just four healthy receivers on their 53-man roster and one other -- Jordan Norwood -- on the practice squad as they began preparations for Monday night's game at Washington.

That's not really enough to run a practice the way they'd like, so they signed Dobson Collins to their practice squad two days later.

What all this will mean for forgotten man Reggie Brown against the Redskins remains a mystery. However it almost certainly guarantees more opportunities than the five-year veteran has received so far.

Brown, who caught 61 passes for 780 yards and four touchdowns in 2007, has caught just 19 passes since. Eighteen of those came last season.

This brings to mind offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg and the remarks he made about Brown on Sept. 24.

"We're going to need Reggie Brown at some point," he said that day. "He'll be ready and he'll play at a high level. I was just talking about that the other day. There will be a game where he goes in and plays great and helps us win the game. Whether that be now or down the line, his preparation and his work ethic is important right now."

So could this be the week?

"I don't want to predict anything," Mornhinweg said Friday, "but Reggie has been practicing lights out. He's playing well, practicing well. He's earned an opportunity and it just hasn't happened yet, and I suspect it will."

Brown's not sure it will happen this week either. All he knows is that he feels badly for Curtis, who hasn't been able to get on the field since Sept. 20 and also hasn't been a factor in the pass game all year.

Like Brown, he enjoyed his best season in 2007, catching 77 passes for 1,110 yards.

"It sucks for one of your teammates to get hurt and not be on the field," Brown said. "Curtis is one of our best receivers and he's a big part of our squad. He's definitely going to be missed. I'm just going to come in and hopefully try to make his loss as [little-missed] as possible."

Brown has played some of his best games against the Redskins, particularly at FedEx Field. In his rookie season of 2005, he caught five passes for 94 yards and his first career touchdown at that venue. He followed that up with seven catches for 77 yards and two touchdowns in the rematch at home.

In 2007, he caught three passes for 55 yards there and added four catches last season.

So what's he expecting this week?

"I have no idea," Brown said. "Right now, I'm just going in when my number's called and trying to execute the play to the best of my ability. And if it so happens that I have a big game, then so be it. But I have no clue whether or not it's going to be this game or any other game."

Brown had been braced for a trade or release since training camp. Unless something drastic happens, the only thing he should brace for is considerably more action, because Curtis may not get back into the picture for a long time.

"I really can't sit around and just constantly think about whether I'm going to be here from week to week," Brown said. "All I can do is come in and have a good attitude and go out to work every day and try to get better every day."